1954 - Safer Dead by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online Page A

was full of hop and admitted killing Hesson. He’s given us until eleven o’clock tomorrow morning to get out of town or else. He said there weren’t enough cops to keep him from putting a slug into us.’
    ‘Did he?’ Creed growled. ‘Stay right where you are. I’ll get a couple of my men over to you right away,’ and he hung up.
    ‘That’s the kind of police captain I like,’ I said, replacing the receiver. ‘No questions, no fuss, but lots of action. Protection is on its way over.’
    Bernie finished his drink. By now he was a little tight.
    ‘I don’t like it, Chet. I think we should clear out.’
    ‘Don’t be a dope! Can’t you see we’re getting places? We’ve got someone rattled. That means we must be on the right track.’
    ‘A fat lot of good it’ll do us if we’re dead,’ Bernie said, adding more whisky to his glass. ‘Now, listen to me. . .’
    He was still trying to convince me to leave town when the telephone bell rang and Larson told me there were two police officers in the lobby waiting to see me.
    ‘Send them right up,’ I said. As I turned from the telephone I said to Bernie, ‘You’re safe now. The law’s arrived.’
    Bernie gave a wild laugh.
    ‘Safe? That’s funny. Some chance. Can you imagine any cop stepping between me and a bullet?’
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    I
     
    I put the pack of photographs on Creed’s desk and shook my head.
    ‘He’s not among that lot.’
    Creed puffed at his pipe, his blunt fingers tapping on the worn surface of his desk.
    ‘He’s a new one on me. None of the boys know him. You think he meant business?’
    ‘No doubt about that. He’s junked to the eyeballs. I’m surprised he didn’t shoot us there and then.’
    Peters, a tall guy with a lean, tough looking face, showed tobacco stained teeth in a hard smile. He was one of the police officers Creed had assigned to me as a bodyguard.
    ‘I’ll take care of him if he starts anything.’
    I looked at my wristwatch. The time was ten minutes past eleven.
    ‘Well, keep your eyes open,’ I said. ‘He’s due to start any minute now.’
    Creed said, ‘Maybe you’d better stay here until we pick him up.’
    ‘The quickest way to get him is for me to show myself on the street. Then your boys can take him when he starts something.’
    Creed didn’t seem to think much of this idea.
    ‘You stick around here until it’s dark. Showing yourself in daylight will make it too easy for him. We may have picked him up by then.’
    I saw the sense of that.
    ‘Well, okay. You wouldn’t give me a gun, would you?’
    ‘Sure, you can have a gun.’ Creed looked over at Peters. ‘Get him a gun and watch him. You’re responsible for him.’
    ‘Yes, sir.’
    Peters didn’t look as if the responsibility was weighing him down. He got to his feet.
    ‘What do you want - a .45 or a .38?’
    ‘I’ll have a .45,’ I said. ‘I want something that’ll stop him dead in his tracks.’
    ‘Have an elephant gun,’ Peters said humorously. ‘We’ve got one in the armoury.’
    ‘A .45 will do.’
    While he was out of the room, I told Creed about the guy in the camel hair coat.
    He listened attentively, made a few notes and said he would send a man down to talk to Larson.
    ‘We should be able to get a line on him,’ he said. ‘The boys are after the charm bracelet and we’re getting the girl’s picture in the papers. By the way, she wasn’t one of the girls in the Paris troupe. We located the agent who got Joan Nichols and the other girls the job in Paris, and he couldn’t identify her picture.’
    He looked at the pile of papers spread out on his desk.
    ‘I’ll have to get on with my other work, Sladen. You stick around downstairs. The boys will fix you up. Come and see me around five o’clock, and we’ll work out a campaign for tonight.’
    I said I would and went downstairs where I ran into Peters coming from the armoury. He handed me a .45 and a clip of ammunition.
    ‘Have you handled one of these